EXPEDITIONDIVING
Fanad Head lighthouse
Paying respects in Fahan
Laurentic Bar for refreshments
Deck gun on display in Downings
“ And so we heard Laurentic speak again, no doubt to the surprise of the locals”
We set to work hunting out the story of Laurentic, which has left quite an impression on the surrounding areas. First stop was the church in Portsalon, which has one of the ship’ s bells hanging in the church tower. Being a weekday, the building was locked up, but then a thought: why not give the church’ s parish priest, the Reverend Chris Matchett, a call? 15 minutes later his wife Ali had turned up with the key to show us the plaque inside. A bit cheeky, but would she mind ringing the bell, I asked? And so we heard Laurentic speak again, to the surprise of the locals no doubt at 11.47 on a Monday morning. Scan the QR code at the side of the page to hear the bells tolling.
That afternoon we took the ferry across Lough Swilly, an expansive sea loch, to Buncrana on the Eastern side. Here we paid a visit to the churchyard at Fahan, where 71 sailors are buried in a mass grave, and laid a poppy wreath. This was followed by the Laurentic Memorial at Dunree point overlooking the mouth of the Lough. Our last stop of the day was the Laurentic Bar, a friendly ocean liner-themed pub with a Golden Age feel to the décor, for a pint of the black stuff.
A dream fulfilled
On day two we took a trip to Fanad Head lighthouse on the western side of the Lough approaches, where some of the lifeboats had
desperately tried to row after the sinking. The wreck site seemed tantalizingly close from here, being less than two nautical miles away. The lighthouse tour guide regaled our group with tales of the gold, which“ is still out there, and every summer local children jump off the pier saying they are off to get a gold bar.” As wreck divers, we were shooting grins at each other at this point.
Finally the wind dropped and Rosguill sailed for the wreck site on day three, complete with ten overexcited divers. The other five divers introduced themselves as Dainius Slivinskas, Florin Dodita, Chris Wainwright, Barry McGill and Frank Hogan. From the outset I wanted this to be more than just a dive trip, and knowing we would be diving with strangers in a foreign country, created some tank stickers with‘ MKSAC 2026 EXPED’
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Viewing historic documents at the National Archives